Dallas Buyers Club movie math: (And the Band Played On + No Country for Old Men) x (Blow + Glen or Glenda + The Machinist)

Tweetable description: If Ron Woodruff only had 30 days left to live, you know what he’d do? Start an HIV treatment drug ring and live for seven years. #NBD

What Chris Nashawaty said: Thanks to McConaughey’s and Leto’s fearless performances as two terminally ill people going to whatever lengths it takes, swallowing as many pills and injecting as many syringes as necessary to survive another day, Dallas Buyers Club achieves a sort of grace. It’s been 20 years since Tom Hanks put a movie star’s face on the AIDS crisis in Philadelphia. Since then, Hollywood has largely ignored one of the most tragic chapters of the 20th century. Considering that track record, even a movie as imperfect as Dallas Buyers Club is something worth celebrating.

Number of Oscar nods: Six – Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Film Editing

Movie’s Oscar history: All the major players for Dallas Buyers Club are first-time Oscar nominees.

What it has won thus far: Golden Globes (Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture), Screen Actors Guild Awards (Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role)

Why it should win:Dallas Buyers Club portrayed a side of the AIDS crisis cinema hadn’t yet tackled, and it did so through a main character that wasn’t easy to love and yet impossible to turn away from. With heart-stopping performances from both McConaughey and Leto, the story was brought to life in a way that was, at times, both hard to watch and utterly unforgettable.

Why it shouldn’t win: This will always be a film known for its story and the performances given by the actors. The film itself didn’t always sit well with viewers, from the near-documentary style of filming to the sometimes choppy storytelling element that was the effect of fitting seven years’ worth of story into two hours of movie magic.